give us this day our daily bread
by Lizzy Rebel
Summary: [YuriAlice, NicolaiKarin, KurandoAnastasia] the love stories were just better in 1915
1. on earth as it is in heaven

**Disclaimer:** this must be answered with a resounding… _no_

**Teaser:** the love stories were just better in 1915

**Author's Notes:** what I was doing instead of Government homework. And English… and Math. Sociology…

1sentence challenge on livejournal. Meaning: one sentence for each theme. Done mostly because there is no _Shadow Hearts_ 1sentence things anyway. (shock and horror). First up, Alice and Yuri. Because they're the original couple.

* * *

**_/give us this day our daily bread/  
_**_  
/Turn One: on earth as it is in heaven/_

**o01. Motion**_  
_the soothing movement of the train beneath him nearly dances Yuri down to sleep, but then a strange, English man brushes pass him  
**  
o02. Cool  
**soft air brushes her cheek, cool and tickling, and Alice awakens, choking on a scream when she meets his red eyes for the very first time

**o03. Young  
**"he's awful broken up about this… and he isn't like us," Alice says of Halley and sends Yuri a slightly reprimanding look, "you should be careful with him."

**o04. Last  
**Margarete is the last one to leave them and she goes with a flare, arms thrown about their necks with a cry of, "I wanna be the godmother of your first born!"

**o05. Wrong  
**_it's all so wrong_, he thinks wildly to himself as the masks whisper those horrible truths into his ear, _they aren't supposed to go after her, never her!_

**o06. Gentle  
**"You're so tiny," he murmurs against her bare neck and gentles his groping hands

**o07. One  
**when she sees him again after six months—six long, agonizingly slow months—Alice realizes that Yuri will be the only man she ever feels this way for

**o08. Thousand  
**"a thousand more of 'em won't save ya!" he shouts to Duhai, cracking his knuckles, his eyes never leaving Alice, strung up on the machine like a crucified Vestal Virgin (which is an adjective he plans to be changing as soon as he gets the chance).

**o09. King  
**the way she runs her fingers butterfly soft through his hair makes Yuri feel like a king and the way she kisses his forehead makes him feel like a grubby peasant, clamoring for more

**o010. Learn  
**sure, he's had woman before, but he's never wanted to romance them and, damnit, he's going to have to ask Keith to teach him how

**o011. Blur  
**the world seems to blur around Alice; she's too bright and everyone else is too dark

**o012. Wait  
**"wa—" she begins, wanting desperately to whisper those things to him (I love you, I'm not sorry, I'll die for you) but Yuri has a world to save

**o013. Change  
**Yuri thinks it's Alice that's different, older and more mature, but when he transforms and the fusion comes with ease and painless grace he realizes it's him that's done the changing

**o014. Command  
**of course, Yuri doesn't take orders often so everyone is surprised when he does as Alice tells him to and heads off for bed, until—that is—he turns to grin at her and offers her a very Yuri-like suggestion

**o015. Hold  
**she holds his sweaty, shaking body to hers and sends up her thanks to God that He's let her live long enough to experience the sensation of joining with him

**o016. Need  
**at first he thinks it's lust, desire even, a reluctant fondness, but when she goes to the Graveyard for him, he realizes he needs her

**o017. Vision  
**she dies in his vision on the train ride to Zurich, but Yuri wakes up and Alice smiles at him—"thank God, it was just a dream"

**o018. Attention  
**Alice has discovered that the easiest way to get Yuri's attention is to begin to undo the buttons of her shirt

**o019. Soul  
**her soul for his; it was a fair deal to Alice

**o020. Picture  
**they don't have time for photos and Yuri will find sometime later that he would trade in everything he has for a mere snapshot of her smiling face

**o021. Fool  
**the masks laugh at him; this fool-boy who seeks to disrupt the soul contract but regret their humor when Yuri plows through them

**o022. Mad  
**"I should be pissed," Yuri muses aloud after they rouse themselves from the dream world, but his arm is draped intimately over Alice (_she really loves me, then_)

**o023. Child  
**it's a series of firsts for Alice; she first makes love with Yuri on the train to Zurich, and she has her first child nine months after

**o024. Now  
**"Now," Yuri says, turning to a flustered Alice who cannot look away from the door he has forcibly shut on their friends, "where were we?"

**o025. Shadow  
**on the night before they go after Cardinal Albert Simon (not Roger Bacon) Yuri tells Alice, "we'll go to your hometown when it's over" and he sees the shadow of doubt flicker across her face

**o026. Goodbye  
**he's not one for goodbyes and so when the time comes for them to depart from their friends, Yuri lets Alice do all the talking

**o027. Hide  
**Alice seems determined to learn every _inch_ of his body so he doesn't bother to hide his scars from her, both inside and outside

**o028. Fortune  
**"fuck," is what Yuri says when he notices how much the new ribbons are, because he spent all his money on that damned, gay acupuncture guy

**o029. Safe  
**it's funny how Yuri spent a year trying to keep Alice safe from harm, but in the end it's he who seeks that comfort from her

**o030. Ghost  
**Atman uses the memory of her father (_you died to protect me, daddy, you died for me_) against her and not even Yuri can protect her from that guilt

**o031. Book  
**Yuri lets Alice read to him from her bible but he's mostly doing it for her voice… oh, and because his head gets to be in her lap

**o032. Eye  
**"Demon eyes," the old woman whispers and Alice thinks that perhaps she does have them; that dream involving Yuri was certainly… demonic enough—of course, carnal would be a better word but she'd never admit it

**o033. Never  
**his heart is screaming, clamoring inside his head, and it's saying _I won't her go! Never!_ and he steps into the doors that have always held his deepest fears; all for her

**o034. Sing  
**"you were in choir?" Yuri asks as he catches up with Alice and, when she flushes, he says, "I bet I can make you sing"

**o035. Sudden  
**she suddenly can't keep her eyes open anymore

**o036. Stop  
**their first kiss is right before the train ride to Zurich, her breath mingling with his, her hands running up his chest, and his heart stopping

**o037. Time  
**"if you could go back, would you change any it of?" Alice asks him and Yuri just smirks; no point in telling her that if he could he would've gone a lot further on the first night than he did

**o038. Wash  
**"I thought you were supposed to take your clothes off _first_," Halley questions, oblivious, but Alice glares soundly over at a smirking, smug Yuri

**o039. Torn  
**he ends up tearing her blouse the first time, but she doesn't mind and she gets a little zing when she sews it up after

**o040. History  
**there won't be any books written about them, they won't go down as star-crossed lovers like Dido and Aeneas, Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra but they love with heat and passion and that's more than enough

**o041. Power  
**he's not really interested in power—certainly not like Bacon(Simon) or Duhai—but he's more than willing to do whatever he has to do to protect Alice, even if that means absorbing a god

**o042. Bother  
**she shouldn't even bother, Alice thinks as she brushes a kiss across Yuri's sleeping head, some hair isn't meant to be manageable

**o043. God  
**Yuri doesn't rightly believe in God Himself, but he gets a peaceful feeling when he watches Alice bend down to pray

**o044. Wall  
**later he'll feel guilty about it but right now he's too needy and she's too clingy for him to worry overmuch about taking her virginity against the wall

**o045. Naked  
**Alice's wondered about the plains of a man's body, of course (and it's not like she can ask her father, him being her father) and she bashfully begins to explore the new territory by taking off Yuri's shirt.

**o046. Drive  
**in the beginning it was the voice that drove Yuri to accomplish such amazing feats, later it became his need to save an innocent woman from danger, and at the end it was this burning sensation in his chest

**o047. Harm  
**Alice had only been able to watch her father die before her eyes and she won't stand for it again; she'll do anything to protect Yuri from harm

**o048. Precious  
**everything about her is precious, from her succulent, plump lips, to her soft, shining hair, to those wide, blue eyes, to the small scar on her shoulder and Yuri worships each one at the temple of her body

**o049. Hunger  
**at first, she thinks it's hunger for food that causes her belly to quiver when she sees him; later she'll realize it was a different hunger all together

**o050. Believe  
**as she drifts off into sleep against Yuri, Alice dreams of happily-ever-afters

* * *

**notes:** just a quick note on the title. Both titles (entire work and chapter) are taken from "The Lord's Prayer", a Catholic chant that they say during the middle of the ceremony. Alice is, obviously, is a Christian and God and Fate play a large role in Shadow Hearts so I thought it appropriate to give them those titles. All the rest of the chapter titles will have lines from "The Lord's Prayer" as their title, as well.

Next up in Karin and Nicolai. Good ahead, guess which line I used for _that_.


	2. lead us not into temptation

**Disclaimer:** nope. Nada.

**Teaser:** the love stories were just better in 1915

**Author's Notes:** part of the reason why I love these sentences is because they're quick and easy to update. Not long and tedious and nearly impossible to edit (_cough_EmpireFalls_cough_) so yeah. Things go faster here.

Okay. These sentences make me depressed. Poor Nicolai.

* * *

**/give us this day our daily bread/ **

_/Turn Two: lead us not into temptation/ _

**o01. Walking**  
he walks into the office, blonde and beautiful and every little girl's fantasy, much in the same way that he walks out of her life

**o02. Waltz**  
Karin fights with the stiff movements of a trained, honed soldiers, Nicolai seems to glide across the battlefield, Galahad a mere prop in his deadly waltz

**o03. Wishes**  
you can't waste your life on wishes, Karin tells herself as she clutches that sword, but she wishes for Nicolai's warmth and compassion all the same

**o04. Wonder**  
the wonder of soft, plump lips, the feel of hands on hips, the glide of skin against skin, and the deep sadness that it wasn't meant for Nicolai and Karin

**o05. Worry**  
he worries about her every time news comes in of Yuri's group and damns himself for the fool he is for worrying about a woman who will never want _him_

**o06. Whimsy**  
the dream could have gone differently, he could have kissed her, lowered her to the ground, _taken_ her then and there—the things you think of after they've already been done

**o07. Waste/Wasteland**  
_his blood is the color of my hair_, Karin thinks, her traitorous mind than whispering to her that he doesn't deserve to die here, not here

**o08. Whisky and Rum**  
"you don't drink?" Karin wants to know as she gulps down the ale, but Nicolai's too fascinated with the way it slides down her throat to notice

**o09. War**  
she falls asleep against his shoulder, lips parting slightly, breasts moving gently, and he battles with himself not to reach out and touch her hair

**o010. Weddings**  
it might have been unintentional, but when Nicolai stabs Yuri with the Mistletoe, Karin finds herself wed to the notion of killing him

**o011. Birthday**  
if Nicolai had a birthday he never said it to her, but Karin always figured men so handsome and enigmatic as he didn't have birthdays as a rule; all the more reason for a woman to wonder about them

**o012. Blessing**  
he was never a good priest so the only way he can think of to give her a blessing is to haul her into his arms and clamp his mouth over hers

**o013. Bias**  
maybe he's just naturally inclined to hate the Demon of Domremy but Nicolai isn't too pleased when Karin breathes, whisper soft, "but he was so beautiful"

**o014. Burning**  
they way Nicolai's fingers trail along the undersides of her breasts causes heat to coil in Karin's stomach, but he's a Cardinal and she's sure she just imagined that hungry look in his eyes

**o015. Breathing**  
even after she goes with Yuri and fights against him, Nicolai finds thinking of Karin a bit like breathing; utterly necessary and fatal if ceased

**o016. Breaking**  
Kato looks into Karin's eyes, as she's the only one nearby, as he turns from Yuri and he can't help but notice there's something different about them, they're like glass now with a long, narrow crack

**o017. Belief**  
in the end it wasn't because Karin loved Yuri (if it had been that, she would have gone), it was because she didn't trust in Nicolai enough

**o018. Balloon**  
his heart floats up to his throat, Karin's all but his, and he can tell her now, tell her those things have been boiling in him for months: _Karin, I love you_

**o019. Balcony**  
if they had been cast in the roles of Romeo and Juliet, Nicolai would have been the one on the balcony

**o020. Bane**  
Yuri takes everything from Nicolai

**o021. Quiet**  
during the train ride to Apiona Tower, Karin finds that the only thing that soothes her to sleep is the quiet, even way Nicolai breathes

**o022. Quirks**  
Karin's inclination to violent outbursts is just one of the many wondrous traits about her, and Nicolai would have gladly carried those bruises (not that he got the chance to)

**o023. Question**  
"Can you truly say you don't care for me?" and Karin's silent for a good, long while because _no, she's can't_

**o024. Quarrel**  
they never did get to have fights like normal couples and that one time didn't count because it was a dream and Karin did all the yelling

**o025. Quitting**  
Nicolai's never given much thought to quitting the Church—even though he's just using it for his own means—but he has to admit that those looks Karin's been sending him are awfully tempting

**o026. Jump**  
more than anything it's a leap of faith and Karin finds the lava much too hot for her to take it

**o027. Jester**  
it could be funny, the honest truth of it; she's fallen nobility and he's the bastard son of a Tsar, they're almost completely alike in that aspect

**o028. Jousting**  
in fairer times there would have been a challenge; but it's 1915 and Nicolai's the only one who wants Karin in that way

**o029. Jewel**  
it's on the train ride to Domremy, she's in Nicolai's lap somehow and his hands are in her hair and she feels like she's finally worth her weight in gold

**o030. Just**  
"why am I doing this?" Yuri demands but Karin says nothing, just waits for him to get back to digging Nicolai's grave

**o031. Smirk**  
Nicolai doesn't smirk—Yuri does—he smiles and it's much more feeling and warm, which is odd because Nicolai is the evil one

**o032. Sorrow**  
she sobs for days on end after they come back from Mount Fuji and both she and Saki know it has nothing to do with Yuri

**o033. Stupidity**  
"I'm stupid," Anne will whisper when she holds baby Yuri for the first time and neither she nor Ben will quite understood, "I was hoping he'd have green eyes"

**o034. Serenade**  
his mother never got the chance to sing him to sleep and so when Karin starts to sing her German folksongs, Nicolai's heart weeps

**o035. Sarcasm**  
"I missed _you_, bright eyes, but my aim is improving," Yuri tells Nicolai as the battle begins and in her heart Karin's saying it too, though she actually means it

**o036. Sordid**  
Astaroth taunts him in Japan, sends him horrible images of Karin, and what she's probably doing with Yuri right now

**o037. Soliloquy**  
the ramblings of man after a torture session: "Karin… Karin… why can't you—why don't you—why _him_, why not me, I need you, love me, I'm sorry, I love you, stay with me—don't touch me, get away!—please Karin, make the hurt stop—Father Almighty!—I'll kill you, where is she, _Astaroth get out of my head_!"

**o038. Sojourn**  
"I only liked him for a little bit," Karin tells Lucia as the woman raises a knowing eyebrow, "honestly, he's not in my heart anymore"

**o039. Share**  
there's only one Thera Seed left and Karin's heart flutters like a schoolgirl when Nicolai is kind enough to share

**o040. Solitary**  
in Apiona Tower Nicolai pauses to look out a window along the spiraling staircase and Karin's heart breaks then and there; he looks so alone

**o041. Nowhere**  
Karin loses a sense of time and place when Nicolai pushes her against the wall and slides his hand up her leg

**o042. Neutral**  
you'd think Karin and Nicolai would be on opposing sides, good and evil, but they're not because they don't want the other to lose

**o043. Nuance**  
"Oh my God," Karin breathes in Nicolai's dreams and it's the way her voice invokes the Creator's name that has him smiling wide

**o044. Near**  
_this is the closest she's been in months_, Nicolai thinks as Karin bends down beside him, her face a mask of concern, and he thinks that this is the moment he has been waiting for, the moment when Karin touches him again and he can handle everything else if Karin just whispers his name lovingly into his ear for a few moments, but then she's gone and Yuri's there and all Nicolai can see is red

**o045. Natural**  
it's almost instinctive for Karin to lace her fingers with his when she sees the first monster and she doesn't realize they're still holding hands until well after the battle has been won

**o046. Horizon**  
if Karin was stronger, she would wish for a future with Nicolai as she floats up in the vast blue sky above her

**o047. Valiant**  
"I'm much more heroic than you," Nicolai muses aloud to Yuri in one of his dreams, "so why is it she chose you?"

**o048. Virtuous**  
she wasn't a virgin when Ben Hyuga took her to his bed for the first time in 1889, but she was in 1915, just ask Nicolai

**o049. Victory**  
for the first time in his life—a life of getting the short end of _every_ stick they threw at him—Nicolai tastes victory because Karin's going to _chose_ him

**o050. Defeat**  
but, of course, she doesn't

* * *

**notes:** again, 'lead us not into temptation' taken from the "The Lord's Prayer". Original, it was supposed to be called 'look not upon our sins' but I wanted to stick with TLP. So, yeah. Last sentences group is Anastasia/Kurando, cute… and ripe for angst (see Russian Revolution and Romanov _massacre_). Why is every couple in this game ripe for angst?

**review**

**Tiger5913:** that's because I can just write sappy sentences without worry of a plot. XD

**MikoNoNyte:** actually, this _is_ the format for the 1sentece community. You should check it out and make sure I'm not a dirty liar. The numbers are taken from the list they give you when they chose your theme set (they're in a nifty table labeled 1 to 50, too!). Kinda like _Lost_. Those numbers still don't have a point at all, but God _knows_ we see them all the time. Also, the rules are that for each little word thingy they give you, you can only write _one_ sentence about it. Which mean you can't do a whole lot, plot-wise… I tried to do an actual challenge where is which word was part of a story, but didn't like it. So I decided to stick with my normal style, pick a couple, read the themes, and write something about how the word pertained to the two people. The o0number thing and later of capitalization and punctuation is just something I use to define my style. Most people in 1sentence do something of the sort. Don't worry, though, there are tons of people who don't like the 1sentence thing.


	3. forgive us our trespasses

**Disclaimer:** nothing, do I own

**Teaser:** the love stories were just better in 1915

**Author's Notes:** yup, we're done. Whee! Again, really short sentence require not so long a time to update. Yay for me. No seriously. Yay. For me.

* * *

**/give us this day our daily bread/  
**_  
/Turn Three: forgive us our trespasses/_

**o01. Air  
**the air tastes different in Japan, but Anastasia too often chokes on her own breath to notice; his eyes are just too discerning

**o02. Kiss  
**taking Lucia's advice—and a woman like that, she has to know what she's talking about—Anastasia corners Kurando and _takes_ her first kiss

**o03. Soft  
**Anastasia collapses against him, her eyes drifting closed, and if Kurando wasn't so concerned with her safety he would have realized just how soft she is

**o04. Pain  
**separating from each other is painful for both Kurando and Anastasia, but the calls of Russia and Japan cannot be ignored

**o05. Potatoes  
**after garnering the approval of his mother, Kurando spends Anastasia's Christmastime with her and her family, partaking of strange foods and Anastasia's own, secretive offerings

**o06. Rain  
**when news reaches her they're both in Inugami Village and she runs out into the rain to hide her tears, but Anastasia can never hide anything from Kurando and he knows she'll be leaving for Russia soon

**o07. Chocolate  
**in her younger years, Anastasia figured that kisses would be sweet like her Easter chocolate, but a certain samurai shows that 'sweet' is no way to describe his kisses

**o08. Happiness  
**happiness has been a far-off dream for Anastasia, war and poverty and rebellion has stolen her carefree youth from her, but she feels something very akin to that joy when Kurando first calls her 'Anastasia'

**o09. Telephone  
**she promises to write, but Kurando tells her that it won't be necessary; their link transcends all forms of communication and he'll know if she needs him

**o010. Ears  
**"it appears the walls have ears," Kurando tells her stonily, shielding her flushing face with his body, and Anastasia giggles against his chest (the walls have names, too, _Lucia, Karin, _and _Joachim_)

**o011. Name  
**"I'm Anastasia!" she tells him, extending a slightly shaking hand and Kurando frowns; now where has he heard that before?

**o012. Sensual  
**_but she's much too young to be doing it on purpose_, Kurando tells himself, pointedly looking away from Anastasia as she moves in that nearly shapeless coat; he's wrong, of course, she just _looks_ too young, fourteen is old enough

**o013. Death  
**as a samurai Kurando's no novice to death, but he can't handle knowing that Anastasia's precious, precious life might be in danger

**o014. Sex  
**Anastasia had thought she had been adequately taught in the art of sex—three older sisters and a mother—but she finds that that's far from the truth; nothing in the world could have prepared her for making love with Kurando

**o015. Touch  
**he first touches her in Neam Ruins and, judging the way his body reacted to that simple contact, he's glad that Jutendouji hasn't been released from his seal yet

**o016. Weakness  
**Kurando's prided himself on having little or no weaknesses, but he finds that to say so now would be a lie, his greatest weakness comes in the form of a tiny, auburn haired princess

**o017. Tears  
**every night, from 1916 to 1918, Anastasia cries herself to sleep, and all the way over in Japan, Kurando stops to listen to the wind

**o018. Speed  
**Jutendouji is wicked fast and he has Anastasia in his arms—and his teeth hovering over her neck—before she can blink

**o019. Wind  
**when Kurando finally works up the courage to slide his arms around Anastasia's waist and press his lips to hers, it feels like he's been knocked off his feet by her Gale Storm spell

**o020. Freedom  
**"freedom, freedom, freedom from the Tsar!" the people of Russia cry and it's a death toll for all Anastasia holds dear and what on earth is Kurando going to do?

**o021. Life  
**the life Anastasia had in Russia is over and done and dead—just like her family, _ohmygodIcan'tbelievetheirgone_—and Kurando tells her to start a new one, one with him and Japan

**o022. Jealousy  
**Yuri smirks down at Anastasia as she glares up at him (they're both laughing though, both in on an inside joke, "_we're so gonna get Gepetto this time!"_) and Kurando experiences a new emotion that burns up his gut

**o023. Hands  
**more times than not he's tempted to loosen her braids just to see how silky her hair would feel in his fingers

**o024. Taste  
**_nothing's wrong with a taste,_ Kurando tells himself as Anastasia stands up on her tiptoes and tilts her chin so he can press his lips to hers

**o025. Devotion  
**for the longest time Anastasia's only been devoted to her country, but now she's promised to the idea of making Kurando love her

**o026. Forever  
**their wishes were surprisingly the same as they floated up and away: "_I want to hold him(her) forever"_

**o027. Blood  
**Anastasia's not afraid to bleed for those she loves, and that's what worries Kurando

**o028. Sickness  
**"morning sickness," is all Saki offers when Kurando's new wife skirts pass him and locks herself in the bathroom; good thing to do, for 'morning sickness' was more than enough to make the worried husband faint

**o029. Melody  
**he's never had a keen ear for music, he's always been too busy for it, but he finds the little moans Anastasia makes at the back of her throat the most melodic thing he's ever heard

**o030. Star  
**Kurando is so bright and wonderful and everything she ever wanted that Anastasia is surprised when he doesn't glow like a star

**o031. Home  
**the moment her boots crunch on Inugami soil, her hand lightly in Kurando's, Anastasia recognizes something inside her that whispers of home

**o032. Confusion  
**the way he's looking at her—eyes intensely red and hot like lava—has her forgetting her name and what's left and right

**o033. Fear  
**fear is not the samurai way, but taking Anastasia back to Russia causes newfound nightmares to latch onto his chest

**o034. Lightning/Thunder  
**it feels like a streak of lightning running down her back, electric and burning hot, and she leans into Kurando, letting his wondrous fingers work their magick up and down her trembling spine

**o035. Bonds  
**there's tiny little, beaded bracelet on Anastasia's wrist from her sixteenth birthday on and it's one of the few connections she has left to the man she loves

**o036. Market  
**Russia is a frigid trading post, Japan is a trove of ancient treasures, and China is a melting pot of everything on the face of the planet but it doesn't matter where they are; Kurando always seems to manage to find something unique and creative for Anastasia's birthday

**o037. Technology  
**the world has already advanced that far, with trains and cars, and Roger Bacon even has his airship, but Kurando's terribly disappointed the world hasn't invited something that lets him record his time with Anastasia

**o038. Gift  
**it was an old Russian tradition, snip a piece of your hair for your lover, and Kurando wears his locket around his throat like a badge of honor—Anastasia's insanely pleased to say the least

**o039. Smile  
**"you're really after Russia, right?" Yuri surmises and for a moment Kurando just stares at him, disgusted, then he looks at Anastasia and smiles… and, well, Yuri _knows_ that smile so, "oh"

**o040. Innocence  
**it's not his fault—honest—because Anastasia's the one that gives off the aura of innocence and so he can't be held accountable for nearly choking to death when she whispers something wicked into his ear

**o041. Completion  
**the closest Anastasia will ever get to being complete, now that Russia is the Soviet Union and her family is dead, is holding Kurando's hand and saying "I do"

**o042. Clouds  
**sometimes—especially now with Russia in the state that it's in—Kurando worries that Anastasia will simply disappear in his grasp

**o043. Sky  
**their first time together—she's seventeen, he's twenty—is soft and sweet and done to the backdrop of a clear, Japanese sky, complete with cherry blossoms

**o044. Heaven  
**heaven is 1915 to 1917 when her Serene Highness Anastasia Romanov falls in love with a tall, handsome samurai known as Kurando Inugami

**o045. Hell  
**hell is the Revolution, when all dreams die

**o046. Sun  
**Kurando swears he's been staring into the sun and that's why he's suddenly blind, but it could also be Anastasia and those tiny, _fast_ fingers of hers

**o047. Moon  
**he hadn't meant to stumble upon her bathing but now that he has he can't look away with her auburn hair unbound and the water lapping at her hips and the moonlight covering in a silky blanket of milk

**o048. Waves  
**absently he fingers the kimono Anastasia has adorned herself in and wonders how the rest of the world will handle their engagement; it's bound to be met with a certain amount of distaste

**o049. Hair  
**most men have a things for legs, or breasts, but the first place Kurando goes for when they make love is her hair and Anastasia finds herself hard pressed to complain

**o050. Supernova  
**it took a while for him to get over her title—_Her Highness_ Anastasia Romanov—but when he did he found these emotions there, burning hot and bright and endless in the night sky

* * *

**notes:** like I said. We are now done. All the time. Forever. Kinda.

**reviews**

**Riana1:** I love your imagery. Thanks! I can't seem to give Nicolai and Karin a happy ending. No matter how _badly_ I wanted to. I need to work on that.

**Tiger5913:** I wouldn't give Anastasia and Kurando a bad ending because they have hope. Unlike Karin and Nicolai. Which makes me sad and depressed. My reasoning behind Karin giving her virginity to Nicolai was, simply. I'd hit that.

**Charlie:** thank you. I'm glad I got that reaction. If only Nicolai wasn't made of pixels… I probably wouldn't have chance but still…


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